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Daily Training Weblog - Mystique

2/6/2009

Our workout today was about an hour long - it was so pretty today! It was only about 30 degrees at the highest yesterday, and today it got up to about 54 degrees - I totally took advantage of that and taught a lot, then rode when I was done. My wonderful mother in law and students had Mystique up at the riding ring fully tacked up for me when I was finished teaching! That was fantastic. :)

Mystique was really good right off the bat when we started out - she walked as long as I wanted her too, when usually she is ready to trot right away. We worked on a lot of extending, collecting, and jogging, at the trot, and we worked on stopping in a straight line, turning with just neck reining. Nearly all of our cantering was good - we only got two kick-outs in there, with probably 10 total minutes of cantering. We cantered in both directions - still having issues picking up the canter on the left lead if we're not headed into a corner, but she's great on the right lead every time. We haven't worked much in the arena going to the left all the way around, because of the angle of the hill going down. It's still a bit slippery in the arena, and Mystique and I are both rather insecure about cantering/galloping down the hill like that.

We worked a lot on collection today, and getting her to lower her head and relax while trotting. She'll do it now 99% of the time at a trot, even going downhill and on circles and while turning. Cantering is still a mess. She will canter nice and slowly on a straight line and up the hill on the right lead, but once she goes downhill she speeds up. We worked a lot on speed regulation within the canter in both directions. She will mostly stay in a steady, consistent western jog now in either direction, unless she has another agenda in mind, such as going across the arena to be with one of the other horses.

My biggest thing with her is that she's so much calmer now than she was even at the beginning of the year. Her progress since I've been riding her in a western saddle has been much quicker than I thought it would be. She seems to be really settling into her work and enjoying it now. We even trotted over a couple of crossrails today, in the western saddle. I walked, trotted, and cantered her over random poles placed around the arena to see if she's thinking about where her feet are - and she certainly appears to be, since she didn't hit a single one of them. A Plus workout today!

2/4/2009

Rode in the arena for about 30 minutes prior to teaching riding lessons. Been having issues in the past with bucking. Got thrown off in July, nearly broke my ankle, and was out of commission for about 5 months before I got back into riding her again. Ever since then she's been bucking/kicking out and being stupid. Worked through it for the most part by now - the last three times I've ridden she hasn't had any attitude whatsoever. We've been working in a western saddle. Trotting is great - she'll extend out, collect nicely, and even come back to a nice slow western job now.

Rode in the field for a little while at a walk and trot. Spooked a tiny bit at a pile of telephone poles that she hadn't seen before and cantered away from them. Continued cantering in a circle, came back down to a trot. Very easy to catch now. Easy to blanket, bridle, saddle. Needs more consistent work, but it's been very cold and windy. Bad weather a lot too - that doesn't help at all.